The Giving Gift

A
Holiday Short Story, by Brian Joseph

After he had
unwrapped his gifts on Christmas morning the the 5 year old boy’s
mother asked him which one of his presents he wanted to donate to a
poor child who had less than him. “None”, the boy replied. His mom sat
him on her lap and explained to him thatsharing with those who were
less forunate was part of the holiday spirit and how a child who had
less would probably be very happy to receive a gift. This took some
convincing from mom but the boy eventually agreed to part with one of
his gifts. Mom told him that he could have until the following morning
to decide. The day after Christmas the boy put his four gifts in front
of him and tried to decide which one to part with. It was a difficult
decision. His eyes scanned over the toy flute, book of Aesop’s Fables,
Popeye book bag, and the toy dump truck with doors that really opened.
He decided that he part with the flute. “Where do we take it ?”, he
asked his mother. His mother explained that there was a Salvation Army
box two streets away and that the people who emptied this box would
make sure that it got to a child who needed a gift. “How will they know
it is for a child ?”, he asked. His mother told him that he could tape
a note to the flute and she helped him to write one that read, “Please
make sure this gets to a kid who doesn’t have a lot of toys”. After
securely attaching the note to the flute the boy said, “I forgot to
write my name, how will they know who this came from?” His mother
explained that they wouldn’t need to know who it came from and how
sometimes part of giving was doing it so that others wouldn’t know
where it came from, like putting coins in the poor box at church.
“Well, can I please write my name?” His mother said it would be okay
and he wrote his name at the end of the note.

This
parting with a gift the day after Christmas became a yearly ritual.
When he was 8 years old the boy so treasured the gifts that he had that
the decision needed to be made by eeny-meny-miny-mo and he had to part
with a set of checkers. “I really love these mom”, the boy said. His
mother said that he could select something else but he didn’t want to
have to decide again. His mother left the room and returned with a
piece of cardboard, the boy’s crayons, and his bottle cap collection.
Together they created a board and set of checkers. “I bet no other kid
in the world has checkers like these”, he said. That year he decided
all on his own not to put his name on the note that he attached to the
checkers box. Three months later when he saw a checkers set at his
friend Jerry’s house he fought back the temptation to say , “that was
mine”, after Jerry had told him that an army man had brought it to his
door.

When he was 10 years old the laundrymat where
his mother worked closed shortly after Thanksgiving and gifts were
sparse. On Christmas he looked over his three inexpensive gifts. His
mother came and sat beside him and told him that this year he didn’t
have to part with a gift. At first this sounded great but when he woke
up the morning after Christmas he thought about how much fun he had
seen Jerry have with the checkers and how the giving gift could be
secret and magical. He told his mother that he wanted to put his new
football in the Salvation Army box. “You don’t have to do that”, his
mother said. He told her that he wanted to.She got teary-eyed and gave
him a big hug.

Six months later his mother’s birthday
was approaching and the boy emptied his piggy bank and counted out
three dollars and forty-nine cents. “What would you like for your
birthday ?”, he asked his mother. She was silent for a moment and then
she spoke, “I’ve noticed Billy playing catch football with his dad and
it looks like a lot of fun. I think I would like a football.” That year
his mother got a football for her birthday.

Many
years later when he was a young man he talked to his mother about how
in some ways it seemed strange that she had him give to the poor when
he was a child since they themselves were poor. Then it happened. She
gave him ‘the look’. It was a look that if it could be put into words
would say, “Don’t you understand, haven’t you learned ?” The look said
that and so much more. It was the same look that he had seen many times
before. Words that appeared to be carefully chosen usually came shortly
after ‘the look’. Certain instances were more memorable than
others. There was the the time when he was 9 years old and he told his
sister that she could never be president because she was a girl. That
time “the look” was followed by his mother saying that people had all
sorts of opinions about president Johnson but that she had never heard
anyone comment on the importance of whether he stood or sat when he
went to pee. This time he was 17 years old and ‘the look’ was followed
with an explanation about what real poverty is and how the worst
poverty to be in is poverty of the soul.

The giving
gift tradition continued into adulthood. One Christmas his own 5 year
old boy asked him, “What was the best gift you got for Christmas when
you were a kid ?” He wanted to explain to his son that the best gift he
ever received didn’t come in a box, it wasn’t wrapped and you couldn’t
even hold it in your hand.

He tried to explain the
giving gift as best as he could in words that a young child might
understand. "Do you still do that Dad ?" His father explained that he
had not missed a Christmas in over 30 years. The following day the
father selected a new sweater and wrote directly on the white box,
“Please give this to someone who needs it”. As he was getting ready for
the drive to the Salvation Army box his son asked , “Can I come?” The
father asked the boy to have his mother help him put on his boots, hat,
and coat while Dad went to warm up the car. The father sat in the car
waiting for ten minutes and thought about the Christmas of the first
giving gift. He was just about to go back inside to see what was taking
his son so long when the little boy came running out with a new
play-doh set in his hands. “Dad, can you help me write the note ?”

There
is joy in watching surprised looks on the faces of children as they
open gifts. Material gifts can be precious but the greatest gifts that
we can give to children aren’t wrapped in fancy paper and they can’t be
purchased at the mall. The greatest gifts were meant to be passed on to
others. The receivers of these gifts are often initially unaware of
what they are actually receiving. The gifts of forgiveness, sharing,
fairness, and caring are the most valuable gifts. These are the gifts
that we can give away but still keep.

Brian
Joseph is
the author of the mystical, musical, inspirational novel, The Gift of Gabe.
This story was submitted to this website by the author